SC rules courts can reject anticipatory bail but not force surrender

The Supreme Court has ruled that courts can reject anticipatory bail but cannot direct an accused to surrender. It said such directions are beyond jurisdiction while hearing a case involving cheating and forgery linked to a land dispute

New Delhi: A court can reject anticipatory bail of an accused, but it has no jurisdiction to direct him to surrender before the trial court, the Supreme Court has said.

A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and Ujjal Bhuyan made the observation while hearing a plea filed by a man accused of cheating and forgery.

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“If the court wants to reject the anticipatory bail, it may do so, but the court has no jurisdiction to say that the petitioner should now surrender,” the bench said.

The Jharkhand High Court had rejected the anticipatory bail plea of the accused and asked him to surrender and seek regular bail.

In this case, a complaint had been filed before a magistrate alleging offences under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using forged document) and 120B read with 34 of the IPC, in connection with a land dispute.

The high court had dismissed the second anticipatory bail application of the accused on the ground that no new circumstances were shown.

It had relied on its earlier order rejecting his first anticipatory bail plea, in which the court directed the petitioner to surrender before the trial court and seek regular bail in terms of the decision in Satender Kumar Antil v. CBI.

The top court said such a direction was wholly without jurisdiction and added that if a court chooses to reject anticipatory bail, it may do so, but it cannot compel the accused to surrender.